Blogs

Curator's Corner

Aizuri-e = Wonderful: Kunisada

Monday, October 24, 2011 | Karl Cole

Aizuri-e means blue printed picture. Traditionally, the blue was derived from the dayflower. However, via the Dutch in Osaka, Prussian blue was imported from Europe as early as the 1790s. It did ...

Curator's Corner

Chromolithograph Magic: Ellen Thayer Fisher

Tuesday, October 18, 2011 | Karl Cole

Although women were restricted from where they could learn how to be an artist up until the late 1800s in America, many women became professional artists. One of the media in which an increasing numbe ...

Curator's Corner

Art Deco Magic: Sol Kogen and Edgar Miller

Wednesday, October 12, 2011 | Karl Cole

Being born and raised in Chicago (but living in New England the last 15 years), my mind often wanders back to the many wonderful walks I took while living in the city. As an art historian, I was fasci ...

Curator's Corner

Mezzotints of Hamaguchi Yozo

Monday, October 3, 2011 | Karl Cole

I’ve tried lithography, woodcut, linoleum cut, and etching (on a plastic plate, yuck!), but have never succeeded as a printmaker. I would gladly do color lithography if I could have a press in m ...

Curator's Corner

An Expressionist Landscape for Fall: Emil Nolde

Tuesday, September 27, 2011 | Karl Cole

Let’s celebrate the official start of autumn with a beautiful little landscape by one of my favorite German expressionists: Emil Nolde. German expressionist landscapes were a big influence on my ...

Curator's Corner

Summer Landscape for Fall: Pierre-Auguste Renoir

Monday, September 19, 2011 | Karl Cole

A friend of mine just framed a painting that I did en plein air (out of doors) as a birthday present. It inspired me to present to you a work that you may not have seen by one of my favorite Impr ...

Curator's Corner

The Woman Behind the Men: Betty Parsons

Monday, September 12, 2011 | Karl Cole

Did you ever stop to think about the people behind historic art movements? A professor of mine once said that without wealthy patrons such as the Medici in Florence, the Renaissance would not have hap ...

Curator's Corner

The Idea of Tomb Figures: Six Dynasties Period

Tuesday, September 6, 2011 | Karl Cole

I recently attended the wake of a friend’s mom and couldn’t help but contemplate how contemporary funerary rituals differ from those in world history (especially an open coffin). If you pu ...

Curator's Corner

Women, Restriction, and Art History: Barbara Regina Dietzsch

Monday, August 29, 2011 | Karl Cole

I have previously mentioned in this blog my observation that even though women artists are not covered adequately in art history surveys, they nonetheless were an integral part of art history. I said ...

Curator's Corner

Pioneer Etcher in Chicago: Bertha E. Jaques

Monday, August 22, 2011 | Karl Cole

I always delight in sharing with you my many “Aha!” moments. One I had this week came while strolling through my mental art collection, pondering the element of positive and negative space ...

Curator's Corner

Yakimono: Sugiura Yasuyoshi

Thursday, August 4, 2011 | Karl Cole

Yakimono in Japanese refers to a “fired thing.” A reverence for nature has historically been part of Japanese art since ancient times. Interestingly, the evocation of the respect for natur ...

Curator's Corner

What's Old is New: Modern Gothic of Dominikus Böhm

Monday, July 25, 2011 | Karl Cole

I am ending this theme with a simply beautiful piece of architecture. The architect who designed it is not a household name in western art history, but I think he should be. Dominikus Böhm’ ...

Curator's Corner

What's New Is Old: Op Art of Susie Rosmarin

Monday, July 18, 2011 | Karl Cole

I was a child in the 1960s, so I don’t really remember the Op Art phenomenon. However, my last year in high school, our art teacher had us do a drawing in pastels that emulated Op Art. I still h ...

Curator's Corner

What's Old is New: Badarian Ceramics

Monday, July 11, 2011 | Karl Cole

I don’t usually go Gaga over ceramics (well, wait, yes I do!), but when we added this image to our collection I had a “never knew that” moment. Most art history texts cover the ancie ...

Curator's Corner

The Anonymous Artist: J.T. Bowen

Tuesday, July 5, 2011 | Karl Cole

While accessioning the John James Audubon Quadruped series this week, something occurred to me that I never really considered before, call it my “Hmmm” moment of the week: In the hist ...

Curator's Corner

New Acquisitions: American Surrealist Helen Lundeberg

Monday, June 27, 2011 | Karl Cole

I close out my Month of New Acquisitions with a pioneer American modernist. Pioneer because she was exploring avant-garde art at a time in America that it was not popular. ...

Request
Catalog
or Planner

Blogs

Topics

Most Popular

Tags

Aizuri-e = Wonderful: Kunisada

Chromolithograph Magic: Ellen Thayer Fisher

Art Deco Magic: Sol Kogen and Edgar Miller

Mezzotints of Hamaguchi Yozo

An Expressionist Landscape for Fall: Emil Nolde

Summer Landscape for Fall: Pierre-Auguste Renoir

The Woman Behind the Men: Betty Parsons

The Idea of Tomb Figures: Six Dynasties Period

Women, Restriction, and Art History: Barbara Regina Dietzsch

Pioneer Etcher in Chicago: Bertha E. Jaques

Yakimono: Sugiura Yasuyoshi

What's Old is New: Modern Gothic of Dominikus Böhm

What's New Is Old: Op Art of Susie Rosmarin

What's Old is New: Badarian Ceramics

The Anonymous Artist: J.T. Bowen

New Acquisitions: American Surrealist Helen Lundeberg

Topics

Share

Most Popular

Tags

Always Stay in the Loop